Saturday, May 24, 2014

Conyers can run

Hundreds of signatures the Conyers campaign had gathered for the Aug. 5 primary had been ruled invalid by the county clerk and secretary of state after a challenge by the Rev. Horace Sheffield, Conyers's primary opponent, on the grounds they were not collected by registered voters. Hundreds more signatures were separately rejected.

Sheffield’s campaign successfully argued that three of Conyers’s petition-gatherers weren’t registered voters at the time they were collecting signatures.

Of course some people are yelping about double standards, because another Michigander, Republican Thaddeus McCotter, wasn't allowed to run last time over "signature issues". Sounds like a fair complaint until you realize McCotter was thrown off the ballot after several of his nominating petitions were found to be faked. Conyers' petitions were genuine, just collected by people who weren't supposed to be collecting them. Not quite the same thing.

And frankly, I can't see any good purpose to requiring that only people registered to vote in that district can collect signatures. I suppose it's to prevent "foreigners" from having an influence on the election... though pounding the pavement to get signatures seems a lot less dangerous than pouring money into another district - or state - election, doesn't it?

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About Me

I teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I've recently started birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community... One more thing: this blog and the opinions on it are mine, and don't represent any institution or employer... probably very much so don't.

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You cannot leave. You cannot drop the armor now. Why? Because you are needed, more than ever. You are mandatory to keep the energy flowing, the karmic vibrator buzzing, to keep the progressive and lucid half of the nation breathing and healthy and awake and ever reaching out to the half that's wallowing in fear and violence and homophobia and sexual dread, hoping to find harmony instead of cacophony, common ground instead of civil war, some sort of a shared love of a country so messy and internationally disrespected and openly confused its own president can't even speak the language.

After all, you don't hand over all your children the first time the flying monkeys bang on your door...

It's far from over. The tunnel is just a little darker -- and longer -- than we imagined.
Mark Morford